Julie

Julie is 41 years old, married with five children, aged between 1 and 13 years old. Julie and her family live in Nyarugenge district, one of the districts of Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. Julie makes a living selling a small quantity of soft drinks (juice) and some cakes in her small shop in order to earn the daily food of her family. The hours of her business are from 6 AM until late in the evening hours.

Julie has an idea of expanding her shop through adding a variety of drinks such as sodas and many kinds of juice plus food supplies such as cookies, cakes, etc... To this end, she would like to request a Kiva Loan via Vision Finance Company. Once she gets this loan, she hopes that by purchasing a variety of soft drinks and food supplies, her customers will increase as well as the profits. With these profits, she will of course use one portion taking care of her family then the other portion will be used in keeping up the sustainability of her business.

Additional Information

About Vision Finance Company s.a – Rwanda (VFC)

Vision Finance Company (VFC) was Kiva's first partner in Rwanda. Established in 1999, VFC is an affiliate of World Vision International. Since its founding, VFC has been committed to alleviating poverty in Rwanda by ensuring that poor people have access to credit to support business initiatives that will improve their life circumstances.

VFC has a broad set of products and services, offering Community Banking services for self-selected groups of 10-30 borrowers, Solidarity Group services for more experienced groups of entrepreneurs, and Individual Loans for customers who already have a small established business. Vision Finance is also among the very few financial institutions targeting farmers and providing agricultural credit options in Rwanda, where access to credit is critical to the success of agricultural enterprises.